. >> and who can forget superstorm sandy? millions of neighbors, their houses swept away without power, damages, and raising questions about infrastructure and whether we should be spending some money to fix it. >>> number five, china, is china slowing or leading the world? we do know that china will be the biggest economy in the world by 2020, for sure, by 2030. china also getting more than a few mentions during the presidential campaign's probably because it is pretty clear, china is both a competitor and a partner. >> number four, europe, the european union was fractured by debt and the plans to fix it. that saga is far from over. >>> number three, the housing market, finally, finally bottomed out. the combination of home prices and continued mortgage rates set off a building and buying spree. well-he well-heeled investors began to buy entire neighborhoods. and homeowners got more with a hefty down payment. >> and cnn predicts that barack obama will be reelected president of the united states. >> the election, more than ju